Until recently, tariffs were legally required by the F.C.C. and state regulatory commissions for all telecommunications services. The public could rely on published tariffs to keep track of long distance services and rates. Rate information could be obtained manually by consulting the public tariffs or by using service providers who provide rate summaries and updates. Recently, the F.C.C. has eliminated the requirement of F.C.C. tariffing. In addition, many state regulatory agencies are changing their tariffing requirements.
The absence of many tariffs and the lack of generally available public information has created the need to generate and automatically detect changes in the service plans and rates for long distance carriers.